Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Death's Head to appear in the pages of Iron Man

Long time readers might remember that a couple of years back there was a Marvel series by the name of S.W.O.R.D. It was a spin-off from Joss Whedon's 'Astonishing X-Men' centring on the organisation of the same name from that run, kind of like a cosmic version of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was written by Kieron Gillen, with art from Steve Sanders, and I had a lot of time for it as a series.

For all 5 issues it lasted, anyway.

Yeah, it was during *that* period of Marvel.

It was a lot of fun. I'm a fan of Beast and Agent Brand, so it was a no brainier for me. But the real thing hitch sealed the deal for me was that it featured none other than Marvel UK's very own Death's Head.

And not just *any* version of Death's Head. This was a pre-Transformers appearance. The guy was still HUGE.

Well, since the days of SWORD Kieron Gillen has gone on to have a fair bit of success on higher profile titles at Marvel, with runs on Thor and Uncanny X-Men, and my particular favourite, his run writing Kid Loki in Journey into Mystery.

As of Marvel's big new relaunch 'Marvel NOW' he's taken the reigns on the relaunch of Iron Man, with Greg Land on art, which came out last week. I enjoyed the first issue a lot, and was looking forward to the book anyway. But then I saw this...

Well, I guess I'm doubly sold now!

Great to hear that Marvel's finest Freelance Peace-keeping agent will be appearing on such a high profile title, too. I mean that's not really happened since his appearance in Walt Simonson's Fantastic Four, back at the turn of the 90s.

Gillen had a really strong handle on Death's Head when writing SWORD. I reckon it'll be worth keeping an eye out for this one.

2 comments:

Excellent, yes? YES! :) I enjoyed Gillen's S.W.O.R.D. and thought his DH was the best depiction since Furman's last go at him (the original, not DH3.0). I look forward to seeing how this will progress and have put the new Iron Man on my pull list.

Good to see the occasional post from you Mark. Especially when it's news like this.

Mark Roberts

Followers

It Came From Darkmoor...

...in October of 1976, on the moors around a research facility. For a few years thereafter it lurked in the shadows, doing its own thing, telling its own tales, until suddenly it found that it was a bit a successful. It began to grow, create more of itself, embrace licensing and raise its profile higher, until the day came when it's older Brother had to take notice of it.

'IT' was Marvel UK.

This is a blog dedicated to the mostly forgotten (But ultimately worthwhile) British corner of the Marvel Universe. Its titles, its characters, its former imprint and more recent revivals. God knows they all seem to gnaw away at my brain so often that, since 2007, I thought that I may as well find a way to exorcise them in a constructive fashion.

This site was the result.

So welcome, friend. If you loved Captain Britain, or if you remember Death's Head, or even if you're just curious about what the hell Marvel UK had to offer back in the day, then pull up a pew, embrace the nostalgia, and pray that there may yet be some kind of future for these Properties, Characters and Places.

Contrary to some people's beliefs they were mostly written in-continuity with the American Marvel Comics.

You may not see them as often as the likes of Iron Man, Spider-man or Captain America, but they are still out there.